


preconceived notion

by onakissgodknows



Category: Baseball RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - No Girlfriends/No Wives, Fluff, Humor, M/M, Miscommunication, New Year's Eve
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-05
Updated: 2019-01-05
Packaged: 2019-10-04 17:25:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,372
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17308760
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/onakissgodknows/pseuds/onakissgodknows
Summary: Anthony’s just a corny dude, Kris figures. Besides, Anthony’s not shy about saying what he wants. If this wasn’t platonic, Kris would know for sure because Anthony would say so. Right?





	preconceived notion

**Author's Note:**

  * For [symsonic](https://archiveofourown.org/users/symsonic/gifts).



> For symsonic! I really hope you enjoy this - I tried to make it rom-com-y and fluffy. Sorry there's not so much baseball action, but I had fun writing this so I hope you have fun reading it!

There’s a preconceived notion about winter in Chicago. If you’ve never lived it, it’s easy to get caught up in pretty Instagram photos of sparkling lights and decorated trees and a light dusting of snow blanketing the city. The reality, of course, is that it first snows in November and the snow never melts, just piles up in gray heaps on the side of the streets, the sun disappears for months behind the clouds, and the cold is so intense it hurts your face to be outside.

It kind of sucks, but hey, not everywhere can be Vegas, Kris reasons.

“Not everywhere’s Florida, I guess,” Anthony Rizzo says as they walk out of O’Hare into the frigid Chicago evening.

Kris furrows his brow. “You read my mind or what?”

Anthony hails a cab. “No, but at this point, would you be surprised if I could?” He opens the cab door. “After you.”

They’re in Chicago for a team-sponsored New Year’s Eve party, all proceeds to Cubs charities. It’s a good cause, and it ought to be fun – Kris hasn’t seen most of his teammates since the season ended – but he finds himself feeling surprisingly unenthusiastic about the whole situation. He’s been single for quite awhile and the prospect of seeing all his friends happily kissing their wives and girlfriends at midnight to ring in the new year just reinforces the idea that Kris is alone.

No, Kris isn’t all that happy to be in Chicago right now, even if he is in a cab with his best friend in the world.

Anthony reaches across the cab and slugs Kris in the shoulder. Kris winces. “Ouch!”

“What do you look so depressed for?” Anthony demands.

Kris shrugs, sighs, looks out the window. He’s not really sure. “Don’t you think it’s kinda weird to show up at a New Year’s Eve party without a date?” Especially when you’re the face of a baseball franchise and people kind of expect that sports superstars are attached to someone or other, probably have girls tripping all over themselves to be with them.

It’s not that Kris doesn’t get attention, it’s just somehow never the attention he wants. He’s not sure what he’s looking for – just that he’ll know it when he sees it.

Anthony snorts. “That’s seriously what you’re worried about? Lighten up. Just come to the thing with me, it’s not a big deal.”

Kris blinks and looks back at Anthony, eyebrows furrowed. “You serious?”

“Fuck yeah. Bryzzo, right? People would love it.”

Kris laughs. That’s Anthony – people-pleaser. “What do you mean, we just walk in together? That good enough for the fans?”

“Sure. Why wouldn’t it be?” Anthony winks cheesily. “You and me together. You think that’s not good enough?”

Kris laughs again and ducks his head, feeling shy for some reason. “No, I think that sounds great.”

They arrive at their hotel and the lady at the front desks asks them if they need two separate rooms or one together. Anthony looks at Kris like he expects Kris to answer, and Kris, incredulously, tells the woman they’re rooming separately. Of course they’re staying separately. Kris, frankly, can’t remember the last time he stayed in a hotel and didn’t sleep alone. This, Anthony tells him in the elevator, is a problem, and Kris probably needs to branch out. Take risks.

The suggestive way Anthony says it tells Kris that by “take risks” Anthony probably means “take somebody home” and Kris laughs too loudly and Anthony shakes his head, smiling. The elevator pings.

“Sweet dreams,” Anthony says as he drags his suitcase down the hall. “I’m around the corner if you need me.”

“Why would I need you?” Kris asks after him.

Anthony answers without turning around. “You always do!”

 

Separate hotel rooms does not keep Anthony from pounding on Kris’s door at some ungodly hour of the morning, and Kris blearily stumbles out of bed to let him in. Anthony hands him a mug of coffee without so much as a hello, and goes to Kris’s window to open the blinds.

“My body is on Pacific time, you know,” Kris says, rubbing his eyes. He’s used to traveling from time zone to time zone, but it’s the offseason and doesn’t he deserve some rest?

“Mine’s on Eastern,” Anthony says cheerfully. “I got an extra hour of sleep. What do you wanna do today, before the thing tonight?”

Kris sips his coffee and wrinkles his nose. Anthony didn’t put enough sugar in it. “I don’t know, what do you wanna do?”

“It’s Chicago. We can probably find something.”

The event starts at eight o’clock, which means they have approximately thirteen hours to kill. Kris would have preferred to spend a couple of those sleeping, but he’s up now and Anthony’s looking at him like he does when he’s excited – like he’s a golden retriever just waiting for the okay to chase the ball Kris has thrown. It’s endearing. “You’re lucky I like you so much,” Kris says.

Anthony laughs. “You’d crash and burn without me. Meet me downstairs in fifteen minutes?”

Kris rolls his eyes. “Give me thirty.” Like Anthony though he does, he still plans on standing in a hot shower for at least twenty minutes to wake himself up.

It’s bitter Chicago cold when they finally venture outside, and Kris pulls his scarf up to cover his nose. “This your idea of a good time?” he asks Anthony, who just laughs.

“Come on,” Anthony says. “I know a good place we can get breakfast.”

 

It occurs to Kris that he isn’t sure of Anthony’s intentions. Anthony got him coffee, sure, okay, he does that often, and not just for Kris. Then he pays for Kris’s breakfast, which is a little more unusual, but he could just be making up for making Kris get up so early. Then, all of a sudden, Anthony is insisting they go to what’s left of Chicago’s Christmas village, which does seem weirdly, specifically, uh, not so platonic.

Anthony’s just a corny dude, Kris figures. Besides, Anthony’s not shy about saying what he wants. If this wasn’t platonic, Kris would know for sure because Anthony would say so. Right?

“What did you bring to wear to the New Year’s thing?” Anthony asks. They’re sipping hot chocolate, and Kris feels a little less like his fingers and nose are about to freeze off.

“Oh. A suit.” Kris shrugs.

“Well yeah, but what kind of suit?”

“Uh,” Kris says, bewildered. “A black one?”

“Oh. Mine’s, like, dark red. I just wondered if we should color coordinate.”

It’s a weird thing to wonder. “My mom sometimes says everything goes with black.”  

Anthony nods, looking appeased. “I guess that works.”

 

The event is being held in a banquet hall at the hotel, so once the sun starts to dip lower in the sky, they make their way back to unwind and change for the party. Anthony, again, is ready before Kris is, and pounds on his door when Kris’s shirt is only half-buttoned and he hasn’t even started on his tie.

“Your expectations are unrealistic,” Kris says when he opens the door. “I’m not ready.”

“Well, I am, so I’m here.” Anthony, admittedly, looks great, and Kris doesn’t think it’s weird to think so if it’s true.

“You look good,” Kris says without looking at Anthony. He’s busy fiddling with his buttons and tucking his shirt in.

“Aw, thanks, KB.” Anthony watches Kris struggle with his tie in the mirror for a good couple of minutes, before: “Dude, do you need help?”

“I know how to tie a tie!” He does, it’s just that all of a sudden his hands are shaking a little. Maybe it’s all the sugar from the hot chocolate?

Anthony clicks his tongue. “C’mere.” He comes up behind Kris and spins him around by the shoulders, knocks his hands away, and ties Kris’s tie himself. “There.” He pats Kris on the chest, uncharacteristically gentle, smoothing the front of his shirt.

Kris swallows heavily, feeling like he’s swallowing some kind of emotion that he should stop holding back. “Should we go?”

Anthony grins. “Yeah, let’s do this.”

 

Kris has to admit: he’s glad he came to Chicago for this. The banquet hall is packed, but Kris and Anthony manage to stick next to each other, weaving their way through donors and photographers and various important Chicagoans, until they reach their teammates, most of whom are huddled around a table of appetizers. It’s like the first day of school, hugs and handshakes and “how’s your offseason been”s. Once most of the team has arrived, aside from a few who couldn’t make it, a reporter approaches and asks for a group photo. They shuffle around and arrange themselves along the back wall of the room, Anthony and Kris somehow ending up dead center.

“You know,” Anthony says loudly to the group after what feels like a hundred photos have been taken, “I think we all clean up pretty good for a bunch of jocks.” He pats Kris on the back. “Especially you.”

“Couldn’t have done it without you,” Kris says with a laugh.

Anthony winks, again – seems like he’s doing that a lot lately. “That’s true, you could not.”

Anthony’s teasing him, like he always does, but this time Kris’s heart skips a beat and he stammers out a nonsensical answer like, “Good thing you’re not going anywhere,” then feels his face turn beet red and he ducks away from Anthony. He has to say hello to everyone personally, right? It would be rude not to.

It’s getting close to midnight. Kris and Anthony have found their way back into each other’s vicinity, sipping champagne (sparkling cider in Kris’s case) and chatting with some of their teammates, when Julianna Zobrist, dressing in sparkling blue and attached to her husband’s arm, kindly inquires of Kris where his date is.

Kris chokes on his cider. “Oh – no date this year. I came alone,” he splutters to a concerned Julianna and Ben, then chugs the rest of his cider in attempt to stop his coughing fit. He turns to where Anthony had been standing but Anthony’s gone – Ben helpfully whacks Kris on the back to stop the coughing.

Once he’s done coughing, he mutters to Ben and Julianna that he’s lost Anthony and better find him before Anthony misses the New Year.

Kris finds Anthony on the balcony outside the banquet hall. “It is freezing out here,” Kris says as he walks out the door. “You’re lucky I like you.”

Anthony looks unhappy. “If you didn’t want to come here with me, you didn’t have to.”

“What? I wanted to. What do you mean?” Kris is bewildered. Why would he have told Anthony he’d come if he didn’t truly want to? And, okay, he wasn’t that excited about being here in the first place, but today has been fun, and the party has been fun, and it wouldn’t have been half as exciting if he’d spent it with anyone other than Anthony.

“Then why’d you tell Julianna you came here alone?” Anthony asks.

Kris walks over to Anthony, leans on the railing next to him. He leans closer and gently brushes his shoulder against Anthony’s. “Are you mad because I didn’t say you were my date?”

“I’m not _mad_ ,” Anthony grumbles.

“I think you’re a little bit mad.”

“No! Just – embarrassed.” Anthony shrugs. “I didn’t want to assume this was more than it was, but I guess I did anyway.”

“Anthony,” Kris says, “did you ask me here, like, as a date?” A date, like a romantic one. Not a friend date, which Kris isn’t sure exist because he’d thought today was a friend date and he’s starting to think he was wildly incorrect.

Anthony sighs. “I guess – yeah, that was kind of what I thought this was.” He looks at Kris helplessly. “I’m sorry if I got it wrong.”

Kris feels his face reddening again. “No – I – I was the one who was wrong. I think I sort of convinced myself you were just being a friend.”

“Hey, I love being your friend, Kris, it’s just sometimes….” Anthony trails off, searching for the right words.

Kris knows what he’s saying, and nods. “Sometimes you wish it was more.” Maybe Kris does know what he’s been looking for, and maybe it’s right here in front of him.

Out here on the balcony, they’re pretty isolated from the rest of the banquet hall, but they can still hear when everyone inside begins counting down. “Ten….nine…..eight…..”

Kris looks at Anthony, eyebrows raised. “Almost time.”

“Time for – “

Before Anthony finishes his sentence, the countdown reaches zero and Kris can hear cheering coming from inside, but he’s more focused on grabbing Anthony by the wrist and yanking him in for –

The most awkward kiss of his life. Kris’s lips end up on the corner of Anthony’s mouth and Anthony makes this weird surprised noise, hands flailing in the air, and Anthony slips on the icy balcony and lands on his ass. They stare at each other in utter shock for a split second, then they both start laughing harder than Kris remembers laughing in his life

There are fireworks going off above the city and Kris and Anthony are cracking up on a ice-covered hotel balcony, Anthony practically rolling on the ground.

“I’m so sorry,” Kris finally manages to say through bursts of laughter. It isn’t even really that funny – it’s a release of tension, of relief that he and Anthony want the same things, that he and Anthony can even still laugh like this after they’ve put all their feelings for each other out there in the open – and after Kris has almost, potentially, thrown Anthony off a balcony while trying to kiss him. Kris reaches out a hand and pulls Anthony to his feet. “Anthony, I am so sorry!”

“It’s okay,” Anthony says, wiping away tears of mirth. “We’ve got plenty of time to try that again. Just maybe less aggressive next time. Relax a little.”

Kris laughs and lowers his head, sheepish. “I’ll keep that in mind.”

They should go back inside before they’re missed. Still grinning, Kris squeezes Anthony’s hand. “Happy New Year.”

 

**Author's Note:**

> Happy holidays, everyone!


End file.
